Naval Engineering College to be upgraded to university

The Nigerian Naval Engineering College NNEC Sapele, Delta State is to be upgraded to university status.

The Commandant of the College, Rear Admiral Akinjola Johnson stated this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Ibikunle Ogunbayo.

Rear Admiral Johnson said the main purpose of the visit was to seek possible ways of collaborating with COREN as a regulatory body for its professional advice since the Nigerian Naval Engineering College is an engineering-based institution.

He said, “As part of the Navy’s efforts to localise overseas training, the Nigerian Navy established the Nigerian Navy Technical Training centre at a temporary site in Port Harcourt in 1982.

“The base which was renamed Nigerian Naval Engineering College in 2003, has seven schools namely, marine engineering, automobile, nuclear, and biological. Others are chemical defence school which includes damage control, fire fighting training, and air engineering schools. The accreditation process for Higher National Diploma (HND) electrical electronics technology and for ND and HND in Marine Engineering technology was in progress and had reached an advanced stage.

Responding, Ogunbayo, an engineer, pointed out that the Act establishing COREN mandated it to regulate the practice and training of engineering personnel.

Ogunbayo made it clear that COREN would not compromise in ensuring the standard and quality of engineering programmes run in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

He expressed the need for a pre-visitation of the institution to ascertain the level of preparedness of the college before embarking on full accreditation.